Featured 3 States Drop Gas Tax as Prices Soar

Re: California prices-
I found this interview interesting. Severin Borenstein, professor at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, discusses his explanation of California gaso prices, at 4:30 mark he mentions that in 2015, a discontinuity of +30-35 cents became permanent with no explanation. He recommends investigation into who is getting that money.

In the past (but no longer), my area had similar prices to Cali, after accounting for state tax differences. Of course, Ca now has hidden carbon taxes, which must be estimated, but that number is not huge enough to account for the high price at the pump.

Oil: ‘We’re not seeing the bounce back we’d hope for’ in supply, energy expert says

 

who should be investigating? is it illegal? unless we nationalize the oil companies, they have free reign

 

it’s sort of like the disparity of 30 cents to a dollar difference in gas prices within a stretch of a few miles, nobody seems to care

 

and are powerless to do anything if they did care. media isn't interested except hype stories on rising prices, congress never accomplishes anything, too much money pouring in from big oil

 

exxon stock still climbing, i wonder how much congress holds altogether?

 

The only new refinies or refinery expansion in the last decade in the US has been in texas. California's regulations make it hard for it to import finished products from other states, so the hidden cost of its regulation is very poor refining infrastructure (old refineries badly maintained) which give the oil companies great incentive to pump up profits when demand is high. I believe this is an intended consequence of california's government.

 

The oil companies (like BP) have a long history of doing away with the correct way of doing things and letting things run into failure to “save money” while paying fines every time there is an incident.

Akin to saving money driving a beater without brakes.

Unfortunate companies that don’t appear to be able to manage their way out of a paper bag stay in business

 

BP ran its Texas city refinery in a way that many of us believe caused deaths because of criminal negligence. When they sold it to marathon, marathon invested and the toxic leaks and explosions stopped. I doubt anyone wants to buy the California refineries. Marathon closed down its Martinez refinery in 2020 and no one wanted to buy it because with California regulations the odds are the company could not recoup the money needed to fix and maintain the refinery. I'm sure the California government could subsidize the maintenance with its carbon tax, but they would rather have it close and have higher refining costs..

 

It should be possible to figure out if the wholesale price is higher or the profit margin is higher at the station. There is a lot of study I would like to do with GasBuddy data, but they charge you for the data, a little like car model sales per state- you must pay for that, so it is something you cannot easily do as private person.

 

In the meantime, it's one article after another about the evils of EVs. Poison batteries, no place to charge, tire particulates, suck in Winter, blah, blah, blah.

 

Exactly!
And I continue to shake my head when I pass gas stations, thinking about the 25 cents/gallon I pay.